Three Ways to Destiny: SoCal Cuties — Book 5

by Grey, Aspen

  “Fuck did you just say?”

  “Cool it, you two!” Ollie bellowed. “Wait right here. Arthur, I will get your shirt and a pair of my shorts. Okay? Just don’t—kill each other for the ten seconds that I’m going to be gone.”

  Sid and I stood there staring at each other for what was a little more than ten seconds, but managed to both keep our mouths shut until Ollie returned with a pair of gym shorts and my shirt. I slid into them and exchanged a glance with Ollie that said, “you go first.”

  Begrudgingly, I did. There was no point in arguing anymore. He was right about everything, and fighting anymore with Sid (at least in front of him) was just going to piss him off, and I didn’t want that. So, I put one foot in front of the other and made my way down the stairs and headed off towards my car, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Sid wasn’t trying anything funny on with my mate.

  Even though I didn’t like the son of a bitch, I was able to recognize the fact that he was being a gentleman, and simply nodded to Ollie before taking the stairs behind me, slowly enough that he wouldn’t catch up with me.

  Goddamn, I thought. This is going to be interesting.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ollie

  As I closed the door to my apartment behind me, I felt an enormous sense of relief come over me, but also an equally enormous sense of loss. For now, the tension between everyone was gone, but at the same time, both of my fated-mates had left me and I felt alone.

  Both of my fated-mates.

  It felt so strange to think and had been even harder to say to Arthur, but there was no way around it. It was the truth and the truth had to be brought to light. Nothing good ever came from trying to hide it.

  I slumped down on my mattress and took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

  “That was intense,” I said to myself as I pictured Arthur heading back to his car and Sid going back to the taco truck. I felt bad that he was going to be so behind on his orders. It wasn’t really my fault, but I couldn’t help thinking it kind of sort of was.

  “Two fated-mates…” I sighed, focusing on steady breathing to relieve what was left of the stress of the morning. Arthur had almost killed Sid! Thank God his wound hadn’t been that severe. It had been terrifying and tragic, but at the same time I had to admit, having two Adonis alphas fighting over me had been…kind of hot.

  “Really hot,” I whispered to myself as I once again slipped out of my pants and lay on my bed, picturing both of those beautiful men, causing my cock to start to get hard.

  Could it really work? I thought as I reached down and gently pulled on my balls. Both of them and me? How would that go?

  My cock continued to grow as I slipped into my own fantasy world and pictured both of my alphas, my fated-mates, finally at peace with one another, standing on either side of me in my small apartment.

  Candles were lit on the counter, casting a soft, flickering light across their sculpted bodies, revealing the lines of their muscles that caused me to start salivating and my slick beginning to drip.

  I turned to my right and kissed Arthur. His lips were warm and soft, but his hand was firm against my back as he pulled me closer to him. But after a few kisses, I felt Sid’s hand on my arm. I turned to him, closed my eyes and opened my mouth to accept his tongue. We French-kissed as Arthur began to rub my back, from the tight muscles of my neck down to my lower back. Then, he reached around me and undid the top button of my pants.

  “Mmmm,” I moaned as Sid lifted my shirt up off over my head and Arthur took my pants down to my ankles, exposing my before both of them like a trophy or prized possession—the subject of all their attention and affection.

  My dick was hard as I played out my own little fantasy in my mind. Precum was spilling out of the tip, and I realized just how horny I was beneath all the anxiety from their confrontation. I’d been planning on getting fucked by Arthur after bringing him home tacos from what I now knew was Sid’s taco stand. But of course, that hadn’t happened, so I was pent-up, and picturing being double-teamed by both of them was enough to have me rapidly approaching orgasm.

  I pictured it again…

  Sid stood before me, his hands on my waist as we kissed. His lips were strong and pressed against mine with a fierce sexuality, almost like he wanted to devour me. My ego was as on fire as my libido as the two men focused all their attentions on me. I touched Sid’s chiseled abs, ran my fingers across them like a washboard and felt myself start to swoon as Arthur’s hands grasped my ass.

  Fuck, this needs to happen, I thought as I lay on my mattress jerking my cock which was now slick with precum.

  “Take me!” I cried out to them—either of them—needing their alpha cock inside of me. Sid tugged his pants down to expose himself. I hadn’t seen it yet, of course, but there was no way he wasn’t packing enormous heat. I pictured it, long and thick, veiny and proud, with groomed pubic hair and a slight, slight curve to the left. “Put it in me!”

  Sid forced me to my knees and I opened my mouth to accept his dick, but he didn’t give it to me. No—he teased me, waving the enormous erection in front of my face.

  “Beg for it,” he told me.

  Wow, this is quite the fantasy, Ollie!

  My cock was ready to burst, and when I imagined Arthur spreading my ass open and probing inside with his tongue, I couldn’t hold it any longer. I came.

  “I’m coming!” I said to no one and tugged my shirt up as my cock fountained cum all over my stomach and chest. I clenched my eyes and mouth shut and tugged on my balls as I submitted to my orgasm, loving it, but wishing more than anything that my fated-mates were there to experience it with me.

  My mouth longed for the taste of their cum, the warmth and firmness of their cocks. My ass and body longed to be filled by them. I opened my mouth and took a deep breath.

  “Please, let this work out.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sid

  “Oh, there he is!” Clyde shouted sarcastically as I raced up to the food truck, shirtless and wearing a pair of Ollie’s pants that didn’t even cover my ankles.

  “I’m so sorry, Clyde!”

  The line out front was down the block and filled with frustrated customers, some of whom looked ready to leave. Orders had piled up in a long line and Clyde looked like he was ready to either blow the whole place up or quit and take a vacation to Thailand.

  “I’m sorry, Clyde?” he asked skeptically as he hastily slid two fish tacos onto the counter. “Order for Jimmy!”

  “I, uh—I had to go,” I told him, grabbing an order to prep. Three beef and a pork.

  “You, uh—had to go?” he repeated. “What kind of an explanation is that?”

  “Hey, relax,” I told him. “I’m still the boss here.”

  “So that means you can just bail on me whenever you want to?”

  He had a point.

  “Hey, can I order here?” an annoying voice asked from the street.

  “One second!” I called back. Then, I whispered to Clyde. “I found my fated-mate!”

  Clyde scoffed so hard I thought he was going to blow his lips off. “Fated-mate! Doesn’t exist, pal.”

  “Oh, it exists,” I replied as I threw three servings of beef onto the stove. “I was skeptical too until I smelled him. And then I knew.”

  “Knew what?!”

  In the midst of the chaos, for one single moment, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to travel back to that moment—the first time I smelled Ollie and felt more alive than I’d ever felt before in my life. Even when I’d first opened the taco truck with Garrett and had begun living my dream as a chef who ran my own business—that was still nothing compared to what had awoken inside of me.

  “I knew I’d found him,” I told him. I opened my eyes and got back to work. I didn’t even have to look at Clyde to know he wasn’t buying any of it. But that was okay. It wasn’t important that anyone else believed it. All that was important was that we both knew, Ollie and me. But then there was Ar
thur.

  My stomach turned as I thought about him.

  That fucking Arthur! Loyalty tattoo? What the Hell is that?!

  San Diego was absolutely swarming with military men, mostly Navy, so I’d grown accustomed to dealing with them. Most of them were fine, and usually a lot quieter and introverted than you’d expect, but Arthur wasn’t that way at all. He was arrogant, territorial to the extreme and brash. He’d jumped on me without a second thought and would have killed me if I had been only a little bit slower. The wound in my side still stung as I worked.

  The day went on pretty much as normal from then on. Clyde and I managed to get back on track and get almost everybody served. We actually ran out of chicken and guacamole, which didn’t happen every day, and as the sun went down, we found ourselves sitting on the concrete wall on the edge of the beach, staring out at the sun as it went down over the cool, rolling ocean.

  “You mind taking the truck back with you tonight, Clyde? I’ve got something to do this evening.”

  “Mind paying me for an extra hour?” he asked. He was no dummy.

  “That’s fine,” I told him. My mind wasn’t really on business at this point. I was thinking about what was going to happen when I went back to meet Ollie and Arthur. I still was trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Ollie believed that both of us were his fated-mates.

  “All right,” Clyde shrugged. He got up from where we were sitting and headed back towards the truck. “I’ll handle it for ya, boss. You take it easy, yeah?”

  “Oh, you know me,” I smiled and waved as he walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. A particularly horrible one invaded my mind, kicking its way in like a gangster breaking down a locked door.

  What if Ollie was lying about us being his fated-mates so he could just have two alphas he thought were sexy?

  No, that couldn’t be!

  But why not? Arthur only said he was Ollie’s fated-mate, and if Ollie was lying to the both of us, of course he’d say that.

  But he couldn’t be lying to me. I knew that he was my fated-mate, so of course I was his.

  “No. No, don’t be stupid, Sid.”

  If Ollie said I was his fated-mate, and if Arthur said he was his, that’s how it was. No one was lying to anybody. We were all just caught up in one of the strangest, most awkward situations I could imagine.

  It would have been one thing if Arthur was an omega, or a beta, and all three of us could have had a sexual relationship like some of those human swingers or something. But Arthur was an alpha, an alpha that I had absolutely no sexual interest in, which meant we would have to share Ollie.

  Share him!

  But was that really that bad?

  I scoffed at myself and got up and began walking up and down the crowded boulevard, which was beginning to thin out as the sun went down, contemplating my immediate future.

  There was no way I could let Ollie go—that much I was sure about. If the choice was between never seeing Ollie again and having to share him with Arthur, well then…

  “Fuck my ass.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Arthur

  My job that afternoon was easy enough: escort Wendy from the airport, where her private plane had landed, back to her home in Del Mar and make sure nothing happened. Nothing would, of course. The crazy protestors weren’t stupid enough to stalk her every move, and it should have been a total cakewalk, and it would have been if I hadn’t been so distracted.

  As I stood there on the tarmac, baking in the strong afternoon sun, I couldn’t think of anything but Sid and Ollie. Thoughts of Ollie warmed my heart, made my cock tingle and threw me into thoughts of sex and breeding. But when I thought of Sid, my heart stung and my fists clenched at my sides.

  Of all the things to happen! Finding your fated-mate was supposed to be an incredible thing, and it was, but then life decided to throw a monkey wrench into it all by adding Sid to the situation. I tried telling myself that I was being dramatic and, like a child with siblings who wanted his new toy, I should learn to share. But Ollie wasn’t a toy, and we weren’t children.

  I watched as Wendy’s plane taxied over and the door opened and the staircase unfolded to the runway. She waved happily as she came down, carrying her expensive designer handbag as a big guy handled her even more expensive luggage. I forced a smile as she came over and hugged me.

  “Arthur! How are you?”

  “Hangin’ in there,” I replied.

  “Oh, no,” she said, easily picking up on my mood.

  A woman’s intuition.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Eh,” I scoffed, waving a hand and walking with her towards her SUV which was parked a few feet away. “Don’t worry about it, Wendy. I shouldn’t bring my problems to work.”

  Her man loaded her luggage in the back and hopped into the driver’s seat as I held open the back door for her. She twisted her lips at me and got in, but as I closed the door for her, I knew the conversation wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

  I got in on the other side and tapped the seat for the driver. “Good to go, chief.”

  The driver, Pedro, pulled away and I felt Wendy’s eyes examining me. I thought that maybe by not looking at her, I could avoid the discussion, but I was wrong.

  “Let me guess,” she said. “You met someone.”

  Okay, I’ll give her that much.

  I nodded and chewed my lip.

  “Okay,” she said, pressing on. “You met someone but…they are already in a relationship.”

  “No,” I replied.

  “No?”

  “Well—not technically.”

  “Uh oh,” Wendy laughed. “That sounds complicated.”

  “It’s…worse.”

  Wendy was a human. She had no idea about shifters or fated-mates or anything like that, so explaining this to her wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Go on.”

  “Well—I met someone, yes. But he isn’t in a relationship. But there is this other guy…”

  “Someone else who has his eye on your man?”

  Your man…

  “Well…yes, you could say that.”

  “Well, who was there first?” Wendy asked with a giggle.

  “I was,” I replied quickly.

  “But this boy you like…he’s also interested in this other man?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that doesn’t seem too nice of him,” Wendy remarked. The car hit a bump as the driver pulled onto the freeway. “I think anyone who would do something like that—play two men against each other—isn’t worth your time. You can do much better than that, Arthur. You’re a very handsome man!”

  “Thank you, Wendy.”

  “And if you decide these men are too much of a problem, I could always introduce you to some retired, slightly older women who would love a man like you.”

  I smiled. Women loved trying to convert gay men. “I think I’m all set, Wendy. If I can be blunt—I just love the cock.”

  Wendy burst out laughing and squeezed my knee. “Well, Arthur. That makes two of us!”

  “But I want to go back to something you said,” I mused. “About this boy pitting me and the other guy against each other. I—I don’t think he’s really doing that.”

  “It sounds like he is to me,” Wendy shrugged. “Otherwise, he’d make a choice, right? Seems like he wants to have his cake and eat it too.”

  “It’s more complicated than that,” I replied. She frowned. How was I supposed to tell her about fated-mates? I shouldn’t have even gotten myself into this conversation. “Wendy, do you believe in true love? Or love at first sight?”

  Wendy looked like she was about to laugh, but then her face changed and she twisted her lips in thought.

  “Well, Arthur,” she said slowly. “You’ve touched a bit of a nerve here.”

  “I’m sorry,” I replied. “I shouldn’t have gotten so personal.”

  Wendy waved a hand to quiet me. “Listen to me, Arthur. When I was youn
g, a freshman in college, there was this boy…his name was William. He was a senior and somehow I never ran into him until the last week of classes. And it was like you said; I saw him and I just knew. It was instantaneous! I fell for him right then and there, threw myself at him and we spent the week together.”

  Her voice trailed off and a pained look came over her.

  “What happened, Wendy?”

  “He asked me to come with him,” she told me. “He was moving to France to work for his father. But I was still in school! How could I just throw away my education like that? So, with great difficulty, I told him no. We tried doing a long-distance thing, but after six months or so, he met a wonderful French woman, settled down and had children.”

  “I’m sorry, Wendy.”

  She shook her head. “It’s all right. I found my husband and we made a beautiful life with each other, but sometimes, late at night when I’m feeling blue, I think about William and wonder what my life could have been like had I just listened to my heart and not my mind.”

  The last part of Wendy’s speech hit me like a battering ram to the chest.

  Listened to my heart and not my mind.

  My heart was telling me, screaming at me, that Ollie was the one, but my mind was telling me that I was a total cuck for even thinking about sharing him with another alpha. But why was that? Was it jealousy or was it fear of looking like a pussy to everyone else in the world? And if it was that—why did I care?

  Wendy had a point. All that mattered to her was William, and the only thing that should matter to me right now was Ollie. When I thought about how I’d feel down the line when I was older, if I gave in to my jealousy and let Ollie slip away, I felt sick. If I didn’t agree to sharing him, he’d certainly still get with Sid, and where would that get me?

  Sid wasn’t going to back down and Ollie wasn’t going to pick one of us over the other. If I held onto my pride and walked away, not only would I be miserable, but so would Ollie. He would have Sid, of course, but he, like Wendy, would wonder for the rest of his life about what could have been had I swallowed my pride and stayed.